#im soft

I made him friens with ccino

everything he says about his life now is about his ✨partner ✨. his weekend plans? he's going to see a movie with the "love of his life." one of his co-workers try telling him about a restaurant they went to? that's so funny because his partner loves that place. why is the last song played on his spotify techno pop? obviously because he's familiarizing himself with the discography of his partners favorite artist!

suddenly, he's getting teased about how in love he is. all he ever talks about is you. none of them expected dex, the normally stoic tough guy who annihilated every test in the academy, to be so whipped. one of his old buddies from the academy even has the audacity to call him "pussy whipped" one day and dex has to resist the urge of spitting his gum out of his mouth and into the guy's skull because it'd probably get him kicked out of the fbi.

on the bright side, his favorite co-worker nadeem never teases him because he gets it. on the down side though, nadeem brings up the topic of marriage and having babies which is filling dex's head with A LOT of ideas. but that's a completely different thing...

oh i am eating this shit up!!!!!!!! AAHHHH

how we sent an ounce of clyde tombaugh's ashes aboard the new horizons space probe so he could visit the "planet" he discovered.

the pioneer plaques

AND the golden record on the voyagers

us screaming out to space hoping desperately to not be alone, that we are HERE HERE WE ARE THIS IS WHAT WE LOOK LIKE.

perhaps something fluffy where reader has a bad habit of not being able to sleep without music. maybe she tries her best to sleep with silence the first couple night because putting in headphones feels rude but so does playing out out loud. then she finally confesses whats been keeping her up and frank is just like… i was in the marines wtf u think i wouldnt be able to sleep?

maybe she starts playing her playlist when he finally convinces her its okay and it actually helps his nightmares (im a firm believer he would cry over pheobe bridgers songs and thats like half my playlist oops)

wait you are so right!! i too have a soft angst playlist that also contains an aggressive amount of phoebe bridgers and big thief so i get where you're coming from 100%

when she was younger, she could sleep through just about anything. a raging thunder storm, one of her parents' marijuana-infested house parties, hell, maybe even an earthquake. but if she thought about it now, she reckoned it was because the world was a much lighter place when she was young. (or maybe it wasn't - maybe it never had been, and she only perceived it that way because wasn't everything a little softer through the lens of a ten year old?)

frank was a different duck entirely. where other partners in the past had insisted on some sort of stimulus to sleep - be it the television, or the incessant crackle of the radio, he seemed content to drift off in total darkness and silence. which had been fine the first couple nights she stayed over (frank had succeeded in tiring her out to the best of his abilities), but it soon grew too challenging. she was just too used to falling asleep to her music.

she had tried her headphones only once - and though they were only separated by the space of a couple inches, she didn't like how far away they made frank feel to her. she had considered playing her music out loud, but couldn't bear the thought of keeping him up with it, so she endeavoured to suffer.

until she couldn't anymore.

after spending a pathetic portion of the evening tossing and turning, she eventually pilgrimaged to the kitchen in search of some chamomile tea (courtesy of david "that shit'll knock your ass out every damn time" lieberman).

yawning, she cracked open the novel she was reading and prayed that it, combined with the warm tea, would help lull her into even a shallow slumber.

"everythin' alright, kid?"

his usually raspy voice, made all the more gruffer under the weight of sleep startled her, before she glanced up from her page.

"yeah, sorry, frank. did I wake you?"

he scratched at the back of his head and shook it.

"nah, I got up to pee and wondered where you were."

leant against the paint-chipped doorframe, he cleared his throat.

"can't sleep?"

she wedged her bottom lip between her teeth and shook her head.

"seem to be having a rough go of it, recently, to tell the truth."

frank frowned, before asking her what was on her mind.

she released a deep breath and glanced up at him.

"I have a habit of sleeping with a specific playlist on in the background, and for a multitude of reasons, I haven't been listening to it when I've stayed the night here, and it's messing with my rhythm a bit," she shrugged. "i'll get over it, I'm sure, I just need a couple more days to get used to it."

frank's frown had only deepened.

"whadya you mean you'll get over it?"

she swallowed hard, but reluctantly continued on.

"I don't want to disturb you - keep you up on account of habits I can't break."

"keep me up?"

he shook his head.

"baby - you gotta remember, I was in the marines. when i'm out, i'm out like a damn light."

he pushed himself from the doorframe to rub a warm, reassuring hand over her back.

"finish the chapter you're on, and your tea, and come back to bed, yeah? we'll listen to your music together." he pressed a kiss to her temple, and disappeared.

she sat in the warm glow of the kitchen light for a couple more minutes, in awe of the man that he was. the gesture wasn't a grand one by any means, but it meant more to her than anything in that moment.

frank was waiting for her when she wandered back into his room, his hands linked together behind his head, and his gaze trained on the ceiling above.

"put it on kid, let's hear it."

so she did. and the first song that played was i know the end, by phoebe bridgers. frank didn't say anything, but she had fallen asleep in minutes to the feeling of his hand as it squeezed around hers thrice.

i love you.

when she wandered back out into the kitchen in the morning, frank was sipping on a cup of coffee at the table, the new york post wedged within his grasp.

"there she is," he smiled. "how'd ya sleep?"

she had woken up feeling more refreshed than she had in days.

"really well. and you?"

frank took another sip of his coffee, and savoured the flavour of it on his tongue before replying.

"I really liked that it'll all work out cover you got on there. that was somethin' else."

she smiled.

"that's phoebe for you."

she wrapped her arms around him from behind, and pressed a kiss to the side of his head.

"thank you, for listening to my music with me."

he elicited a soft scoff.

"I oughtta be thankin' you, kid. last night was the first night in a while I didn't have any nightmares."

she ignored the crack in her heart at that, and pressed another kiss to his temple.

"a million mornings, frank."

he traced a fingertip over the back of her hand and smiled.

Being out in space, no one really thought about celebrating this month, but then Lance casually wished the team a happy Pride—mostly because he’s the type of guy who will take any opportunity to celebrate and congratulate people. But then Allura and Coran got curious about what it meant, and just like that, they unexpectedly got a full history lesson from Lance on Pride Month and everything it stands for.

And since this was officially another "Earth Culture Education" session, the rest of the team was obligated to be there. (Mostly because they’ve already had incidents where one of the Paladins accidentally—or intentionally—explained something completely wrong to Coran and Allura). Lance didn't say it out loud, but it was incredibly comforting to see that the rest of the Paladins were so open-minded and supportive about the topic, especially since they had never actually brought it up before that day.